The Spanish Football Federation have confirmed that they are putting forward San Mames and La Peineta as candidates to host games at Euro 2020.
The 60th anniversary of the European Championships that year will see the competition spread across 13 cities in different countries in the continent.
A total of 32 member associations initially put forward prospective candidate cities to bid for one of the 13 ‘hosting packages’, 12 of which will take in three group stage fixtures and one knockout match, and the 13th will be for the semi-finals and final of the tournament.
The RFEF had originally put forward four cities for consideration, but have this week cut Valencia’s Nou Mestalla and Espanyol’s Cornella-El Prat from the list, opting to officially nominate Athletic Bilbao’s newly-opened San Mames and La Peineta, currently under construction as Atletico Madrid’s prospective new home.
Each member association can put forward two hosting bids – one for one the 12 standard packages and another for the semi-finals and final package, although they have not specified which ground is bidding for which package yet.
“After analysing the conditions of the four stadiums presented as candidates to be venues for the European Championship in 2020, the Directives Board Meeting has announced that it will propose San Mames (Bilbao) and La Peineta (Madrid) to UEFA, as candidates to hold several matches of the tournament,” confirmed the RFEF in a statement released this week.
Speculation recently has been that San Mames is a leading candidate to be selected as a host stadium, and Bilbao was where UEFA’s Executive Committee was held earlier this month, to mark UEFA Vice-President and city native Angel Maria Villar’s 25years reached as President of the RFEF.
